Giftfic Exchange: Thundercats
by alluras-castle
Summary: A collection of giftfics for my fellow authors and dear readers.
1. In Illness

Re-write of Motherhen's prompt: "During the story, a character gets sick. In the story, there's a bowl of soup." for WAR-Operative. Takes place between chapters 18 and 19 of Fall Of The Empire/Rise Out Of the Ashes, in place of episode 18, Survival of the Fittest, in which Echo is sick. I'm playing with a new character (insert long author ramble, lol), so hopefully this goes well.

* * *

Most days, the Thundertank seemed spacious and generally of a cool temperature, not quite _cold. _There was enough room for the group to stretch their legs on their journeys, without having to pull over and work out cramps, as was the case with its predecessor.

One would have thought, with Lion-O and Tygra away, it would have seemed even bigger.

But instead, it seemed smaller, more cramped, and swung from insufferably hot to frigid cold, and no amount of throwing off and pulling on her blanket seemed to help, and neither did any combination of limbs sticking out from the eskew covers. The only thing that seemed to help so far was the fact that Shera had kicked WilyKit and WilyKat out of the bunk room for jumping on all of the beds, it seemed, and being so _noisy. _It had taken a few groans and a mumbled "go away" for it to happen (summon Shera to chase them off, that was), but her temples weren't sharply pounding nearly as much anymore; a small victory.

Echo let out another groan with a grimace that quickly melted into an upset pout despite herself.

Almost immediately, she could make out the sound of Shera closing her book and making her way into the room, having been lounging out in the main area since Panthro and Cheetara had taken the twins out for a hunting competition, or something like that, and she didn't want to disturb Echo.

Echo tried to give her a relieved smile as she entered. The tigress arched a fine black brow at her, holding a canteen in her off-hand - and because Shera was weird, that was her right paw.

Her tired and feverish mind was getting off track.

"You should drink some water. With how much you're sweating, you're going to become dehydrated." _Survivalist. _Echo thought to herself.

"Aw, you sound worried." Echo tried to tease, before rubbing her sore, dry throat. Shera's brow arched higher. "...okay." she conceded, sitting up not without some effort and disgruntled noises. She extended her hand out for the canteen, and was pleasantly surprised to find it was chilly.

Shera wasn't the type to wear her emotions on her sleeve, ever the cool and collected one of the group - if, perhaps less patient but more stoic than Cheetara, and a less wise and worldly attitude and more of a well, survivalist's, crafty and clever. However, there was a strong suspicion among them that she cared a lot more about them than she was naturally inclined to share. Maybe something like a big sister with half a dozen young and reckless siblings.

Bringing chilled water to the sickie who might as well have been sweating buckets, for example. And generally just babysitting the sick human, too, when no one else particularly wanted to.

Echo slowly took a sip from the canteen, worried she wouldn't be able to keep the water down of she drank too much too fast. The coldness of it felt like bliss, so, after closing its cap, she lifted it to her forehead and sighed in relief.

"I'll be back," Shera said, slipping out of the room before Echo could register what she said.

She shrugged after a moment, and let her eyes close to better appreciate the cool canteen.

After a few minutes, or maybe longer, the door opened again and Shera stepped in, a bowl in one paw and a rag wrapped around a strip of cloth in the other. "Here," she said, setting the bowl down beside Echo's bed, on one of the trays that could fold out from the bed frame. Or, at least that's what Echo thought it was. It could've been floating magically. "I did some herb gathering while you were napping, to make you soup." Echo furrowed her brows a bit.

"I thought we didn't have any food..."

It wasn't until after she said something that her brain caught up to the fact that WilyKit and WilyKat wouldn't touch vegetables - fruits, yes, vegetables...no - unless their very lives depended on it, and not until after they had complained about it. Shera answered anyway, indifferent to the embarrassment that made Echo's face turn even redder, if that were somehow a possibility.

"Not really. Just vegetables and spices, and water. But that's more than enough if you know how to use them. And here, this is a wet rag. You can just tie it around your head like a headband instead of holding your arm up like that." As if to show her point, she lifted it up by either end of the cloth it was wrapped around, heterochromatic green eyes meeting Echo's own blues.

Echo sighed in relief, letting her arm drop and Shera tie it on. To her delight, it was similarly cold. Was Shera keeping this stuff in the freezer compartment for her convenience...?

Shera snorted in what sounded like amusement. "My magic is for more than fighting; chilling things, for example." Echo blinked at her, then flushed in embarrassment as realization dawned. She must have spoken aloud. "The soup is still warm, if you want to try eating some."

Echo turned her gaze to the soup. It had a russet brownish broth, and she could distinctly see carrots, potatoes, corn, and celery in it, among others. There wasn't any meat in it, sadly.

WilyKit and Kat were ravenous and most of the time, seemed like they'd eat anything. But they were still twelve year olds, which was sometimes easy to forget either because they were being more mature or less- and apparently most cats didn't like, nor need, vegetables until they were closer to adulthood; the twins were no exception. So, of course, that meant Shera kept her own handy stock of vegetables with the help of either her or Cheetara's magic to preserve them for longer, which the two never gobbled up. Worst case scenario was that the gluttonous duo ate all the rest of their food and the rest of the group was left with Shera's soups to sustain them until they could go hunting or to a market again. Sometimes they had bread to go with them, that was always a treat.

None of the others knew her recipes or how she utilized her ingredients so well, and they didn't quite taste like other Thundarian soups. It was weird. They were good, but it was weird.

Echo was normally among the most appreciative of the soups, but right now, her stomach was anything but happy at the sight. She couldn't even _smell _well enough to try and convince it otherwise. Her stare turned dubious.

"Thanks..." she said anyway, making a show of taking a small bite and drinking some of the broth.

"Hn." Shera left Echo to suffer in peace once more, solid black mane swishing behind her as she went. Echo knew she'd be keeping an ear out for her summoning groan.

..and then all ruckus and chaos broke out in the main foyer - could it be called a foyer, she wondered - as Cheetara and Panthro returned, and Echo smiled smally to herself and sipped at more of her broth as Shera exclaimed something or another about an awful smell and _"you will absolutely take a bath or sleep outside, even Echo would be able to smell your stench!" _followed by a quieter, but firm, _"And you as well, Panthro. Your bath is long overdue."_

Echo snickered softly, though it hurt her throat somewhat, and took another sip of the broth. She felt rather pleased, in spite of being sick - a big sister figure Shera was indeed.


	2. Twinless Twin - unedited

"The story ends in the ruins of an ancient building. During the story, there is an explosion. A character will prepare for a birthday, and they aren't happy with it. During the story, a character is robbed." - Mooncloudpanther

Angst. Twinless twin angst.

Felline © Frankannestein; Panthro &amp; Thundercats © Warnerbros.

* * *

Felline was okay when she woke up, at first.

The depression came to her as she woke up more thoroughly and became more aware of the day it was.

It was... it was... - she was nineteen. _Felline_ was nineteen but... Lepra wasn't here. The single, sad and crushing fact, destroyed any chance for her to have a good mood. She operated without really thinking, didn't get offended at Tygra's snide remarks about his brother; she moved and worked like a machine put on an 'auto' function.

When she was told that they needed to pack up camp, she folded up her tent and rolled up her bedroll without so much as a word.

When asked what was wrong, she didn't answer. Her tail continued to drag behind her and her ears hardly twitched in the direction of whoever was speaking.

There was a question that was constantly resounding in her mind:

_Is every year without Lepra going to feel like this?_

Felline was numb and emotionally _crushed._ She felt like she could curl up in a corner and cry, except she... couldn't. It was a battle of abstract and contradicting feelings. One thing she knew for certain was that she did not want to be around the others while she was so conflicted.

Sure, she had always felt that she had been living in Lepra's shadow. That she had always been second best and least wanted - the least _loved_ \- among the two, but at least she had always _had Lepra._

Memories of the last time she really saw her sister played in her head. The time she dived into the fountain for the coin - which she was now absently brushing the surface of with her thumb - and she had politely declined that tom's offer for dinner because 'if she goes, I go. We're twins, after all. We do everything together.' - _except turn nineteen, apparently,_ she thought bitterly.

Another time, after Felline had found out that Lepra was engaged, while they were at the celebration party. It was a once-warm but now void memory, of Bastien (surprisingly). Specifically, of when she gave him her favor; a kiss. Blankly, she wondered what could have become of that relationship, but she just couldn't picture it.

The cat she had been then, and the cat she was now were just so vastly different. She couldn't fit her life back in the mundane little square had once been. Not for her dead sister's memory - not that Lepra would want her to anyway... right? - and certainly not for her father. She'd grown too much to be scared of disappointing him anymore.

It wasn't until black smoke was filling the little cubbie she had tucked herself into that she snapped out of her reverie. She burst out of the hidden-away corner coughing, and ran out of the Thundertank.

The others were coughing as well, but not quite as hard.

When Panthro spotted her, he twisted his lips. "You okay there, kid?"

"I'm not a kid," she retorted, waving smoke away from her face as she joined them at the base of the Thundertank's ramp. "I thought she was fixed!" With that, she pointed back at the tank over her shoulder.

Panthro's expression remained straight as he responded, "Kit and Kat found smoke pellets."

The two innocent-appearing mischief-makers batted their eyes shyly. Felline frowned at them.

He snorted, "What were you doing anyway?"

Felline didn't answer him, instead folding her arms over her chest. Defensively, she asked, "Does it matter?"

Panthro slightly raised a brow, but conceded gruffly, "If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine."

"Good, because I don't want to talk about it."

The gods must have loved irony. She didn't want to talk about it, but it felt good to express it.

Tygra and Cheetara were seated side-by-side, _of course,_ closer than they necessarily had to be. Lion-O was a good distance away.

The twins were running around the fire with Felline's gunblade, which they had stolen an hour ago, and an irritated Felline had just stomped off. Panthro had followed after her, a few minutes later, and gruffly suggested they get firewood.

Yeah, sure.

She grabbed the wood and stacked as much of it as she could in Panthro's arms - which, for the record, was a lot. More than she could have carried in three trips.

Now, they were seated away from the rest of the group, and Felline was blurting every painful thing that came to mind about being a twinless twin. Specifically, about how being a twinless twin for their first birthday felt. It hurt and she just wanted her sister back. And just pouring out her inner agonies was making her feel better.

He was a surprisingly amazing listener. He nodded and kept his attention fixed on her, his lips occasionally twisting. When she confessed how much it hurt, he pat her on the back and rumbled wistfully, "It'll always hurt. The loss of a sibling never goes away." And then he stood. "Come on. They're being obnoxious." He gestured to the rest of the group as a whole, and she meekly agreed, accepting his paw for assistance. He pulled her to her feet and, while she dusted herself off, he snatched the gunblade from the kittens as they ran by.

"Hey!" they exclaimed in surprise.

"Go bother Lion-O," Panthro ordered in a no-nonsense voice.

They hesitated a moment, sharing a surprised and confused look, before shrugging and moving away from the duo.

"They were fine." Felline protested. Honestly, seeing them together and having fun had actually made her happy. If it hadn't come at her own expense that would have been even better.

It was like living vicariously, but not.

Panthro snorted skeptically, but didn't comment on it. Instead, he told her, "Come on."

* * *

"Grune and I took shelter here once," he commented.

It was a ruined building. It was ancient and had seemingly been abandoned to the elements. A tree had grown just next to it, its trunk imposing on the building. Rampant vegetation had climbed the exterior and interior walls, lonely little white flowers seemingly glowing in the moonlight. A lush fern had grown scenically beside the door

It was surreal and beautiful. But terribly solitary.

"We wondered about what it had been before. I always thought it was some sort of... shrine." He explained, sighing. She nodded and walked towards it. She felt the spongey moss under her paws and gave a sad smile. Lepra might have loved seeing something like this.

"I'll stay out here and give you some time alone." he announced.

Felline didn't respond, but rather slipped past the broken door. There were more of the lonely flowers inside, from the ceiling and on the walls, and there was spongey moss underfoot. The floor was uneven with uphevels caused by the roots of the very tree that had grown into one of its walls.

Nothing appeared to be living in the building, save for a few meece that chittered and squeaked in protest at her presence, but then scurried into little burrows in the wall.

She took the details of the lit-by-glowing-flowers room with an impassive expression and feeling.

Felline sat down on a root, heaving a heavy sigh.

She pulled the coin out again, and gazed at it sadly.

_"What on Third Earth were you doing?" Lepra was fussing._

_Lepra almost sobbed, "You don't need to steal someone else's wish. That's what you're doing right now, you know. Stealing someone's wish."_

"It's not just any coin," she murmured. "It was new minted this summer..."

Her lips twitched upwards. "Besides, it's my good luck coin." A thought occured to her, sparking curiosity. She stood and slipped back outside. Panthro was deligently standing where she had left him, looking around with his default scowl and arms folded over his chest. "Who did you lose?" she asked.

He turned, seemingly surprised. It only lasted a heartbeat. "Maybe all of 'em," he answered. His voice was gruff as it normally was, but its undertones were distant.

She approached him and stopped at his elbow - gods, she was short - and asked, "How many siblings did you have?"

"Well," he started, "The oldest were the twins. Identical, funny, surprisingly responsible. I probably fought with them the least of any of my six brothers." he remarked. "After them was my oldest sister - like the rest of my four sisters, she was too pretty for the well-being of toms around her." Panthro said, actually scowling in displeasure. "Didn't stop her from having two sons and a daughter."

Felline raised her brows, "What about your other siblings?"

"The twins were the only mature ones." Then he chuckled, "My only younger brother accidently broke my nose while we boxing. I had never thought the kid had it in him to actually hit me hard. 'Guess I deserved it." He was clearly amused with the memory.

Felline was surprised. "And you... find that amusing? That's terrible!"

Panthro snorted. "You obviously never had brothers."

"No! It was just Lepra and I!"

Panthro chuckled and uncrossed his arms, patting her almost too hard on the shoulder. "If you had, you wouldn't have needed Cheetara to teach you hand-to-hand."

Felline scowled, "You forget I was nobility, and it was 'unacceptable' for she-cats to learn how to fight."

"Princess Liena was nobility, and she knew how to wield a sword." he pointed out.

"Princess Liena was also Royalty and twelve years older than her only male sibling." Felline countered.

Their conversation evolved into debating whether or not a Princess from five-generations before was taught how to fight because she wanted to learn, or because it seemed that she would be the next wielder of the Sword of Omens.

And it was enjoyable.

* * *

Technically Felline had to mentally prepare herself for all future birthdays? F*cking twinless twins and my feels - I'm surprised I'm not a little sobbing mess. OH WAIT. I AM. *cries over Fred and George and the overall tragedy that is twinless twins*

Hope you liked it, Anne (even though I really meant to give you something fluffy?), and Happy New Year everyone!


	3. Blindsided

So, a re-fill of prompt 3, "pair a character with someone you never thought you would." This is in the place of "Set In Snow" with, hopefully, less plot and more characters. Though I'm told "they" say, you should never ship something as a joke...especially not as a joke. Stuff like this happens. Spoilers for Bengali in my fic, ho! Inspired by, and I quote: "Bengali stripping . . . oh, my." - Frankannestein. I love you so much girl. (Of course, this is a...very different Bengali.)

In which Felline is twenty-one, Bengali is twenty-nine and completely blindsided by feelings, of all things. Non-canonical in that Felline and Lion-O aren't a ship and neither is Benmyra.

* * *

Nights like this were quiet, peaceful. The only sounds were those of nature - avians chirping faintly into the hours of dusk, insects making their strange, but melodic noises, communicating. The wind blowing through leaves and grasses, a gentle swish. The breeze felt nice on his fur.

The occasional laugh of a cat, and he could just barely hear other signs of life. Music, but he couldn't make out the instrument.

Bengali leaned against the railing of the balcony - how ironic, perhaps, that the palace stood mostly intact; less proud without its effigy, but perhaps the most habitable building of Old Thundera - and stared at the darkening sky. Already, Leo was in sight. He turned his gaze down to observe New Thundera, at least halfway finished, and built upon the ruins of its predecessor. A reminder, hopefully, that even the "strongest" could be torn down. To treat others with kindness and compassion, and equality in mind.

He wondered how long it would last, the friendship and peace the cats were experiencing with other races. With dogs and elephants - that one would probably last - and birds and fishmen, the Warrior Maidens and berbils. Once, he would have said it'd never last more than a year, but now...

Well, he was a little less cynical about the nature of Thunderians now, three - almost four - years after The Fall. He found he didn't really hate them anymore, either. Weird.

He blamed Lion-O, and the time he spent with the Thundercats in their quest to defeat Mumm-Ra. He remembered not wanting to go with them, but his father wanted him to go; Jorma was "too old" to go adventuring the way he used to, and "they need(ed) the help," and Bengali's crafting skills had been incredibly useful, even more so when the Sword broke. He'd become friends with them despite his personal feelings about the matter - make no mistake, he and Tygra still didn't like each other, but somewhere along the way they'd stopped going at each other's throats and getting into arguments "more frequently than with Lion-O."

Bengali was still wrapped in his thoughts when he heard, "Oh...uh..."

He turned to see Felline standing at the doorway of the lounge, frozen with surprise across her features. "Hi?" he said, raising a brow. "Something the matter?"

"Wha- why- where is your shirt?" she finally managed. Bengali wanted to roll his eyes; as if she'd never seen a shirtless tom before and it was truly and deeply a shocking occasion. Because Panthro didn't wear a tiny vest that covered more of his shoulders than his chest, Lion-O had never bathed in the sun while patching up his tunic, and none of them had ever gone swimming together before.

"On the chair?" he responded with a lilt to his voice and small smirk playing on his lips. "What, don't like what you see~?" he teased, leaning back against the railing, propped up on his elbows.

Her cheeks flushed bright red under her pale white fur, and she rubbed the back of her neck with a look of equal parts embarrassment and mortification. "That's- not the point." she told him stubbornly, clenching her jaw. "Why aren't you wearing it? It's cold out..."

Bengali laughed. "Fellime, it's Thundera. It only gets cold when it snows. Besides, with fur like ours, it's always warm. In fact, I could go for a nice, late night swim right about now, to cool down. It's just..." he stretched purposefully, arching his back, "...so hot in here, you know? Not enough of a breeze." If looks could kill, Felline's trademark dirty look would have slain him several times on the spot. Her pretty blue eyes weren't icy, just unamused and, well, murderous.

"I hate you." she announced with not enough heat, turning away from him.

He bet she had every intention of walking out, and returned to languidly leaning against the railing. Bengali tilted his head back, chuckling, "Yeah, yeah. Love you too, Felline. Try not to give a passerby that look. Might just kill 'em."

And then, she didn't. She paused, staring out into the hall. Her ears were swiveled towards him, and her tail-tip twitched.

"...you're ridiculous. Looks can't kill." she sounded begrudgingly amused by it, like it reminded her of something, maybe something someone said once. He could guess who, if he wanted.

"But if they could." Bengali insisted happily. The moons were pretty, he noted, and the stars weren't even out yet.

He knew of a culture, and had spent time among it, that the localization of "I love you" was "the moons are pretty." They were a somewhat poetic people, foxes. Kitsune. Often playful tricksters, too. WilyKit and Kat would probably take a gleam to them and they to the kittens. When he left Thundera, he'd have to invite the two with him. It was obvious they didn't like being "cooped up" for so long. Adventurers through and through, and wow. He got sidetracked hard from his last train of thought; what was he doing?

Oh, right. Embarrassing Felline, because she blushed bright red and was weirdly awkward around him when he was shirtless even though other toms had worn less and she didn't bat her eyes.

And also because she had the greatest dirty look he'd ever had the pleasure of witnessing.

"Weirdo." she declared far too softly. Bengali furrowed his brows at the sudden change of tone and whiskers, he missed something staring at the fading sky and getting lost in his thoughts, didn't he? An emotional cue that would have clued him into why she suddenly sounded so endeared, and not in the usual way. Something that would have kept him from feeling abruptly flat-footed instead of poised. He hated that feeling and wasn't sure why it was suddenly and so rudely encroaching on his quiet, peaceful, if a bit playful, evening. "Well?" Felline continued, with a drawl. Bengali's brain was still scrambling to figure out what is was missing, why she suddenly sounded different. "Are we going to go 'cool down,' 'Gali?"

He looked at her and blinked twice.

Holy- was she? No. Felline didn't do that...did she? Did Felline know how to flirt? Was her voice flirty? How was that even possible? Since when? He needed answers.

After a minute of him staring at her, her cheeks started to burn red again and she shifted awkwardly on her feet.

Since. When.

Not that he hadn't ever thought of this sort of situation, it'd just been a while, and hypothetical. So, sure, he really enjoyed Felline's company, teasing or not, but flirting? Honest, actual flirting? Oh no, he'd bever crossed that line - at first, because she was under twenty, in her fledgling young years of adulthood and he had, what, eight years on her? No, that just seemed wrong to flirt with her - teasing was another story, and okay, maybe in the last couple years that'd become more flirtatious but she was older now, and it was friendly anyway, and besides, he'd never wanted to flirt with another cat, or not a Thunderian, anyway, he'd been of the opinion they were all bastards - even if it was casual, and what if it'd made her uncomfortable? He'd have felt so bad about it. And then out of habit, he didn't typically think of her in terms of "flirting partner." Usually just "tinker buddy," "good friend," and someone he trusted and felt comfortable with. Someone who he could turn to for help if he needed, or to talk to about pretty much anything, father included. Jorma was a semi-regular conversation topic, especially if he got talking about one adventure or another from when he was a cub...

Bengali swallowed, and suddenly, yes, it was far too hot. This is what he got for teasing, wasn't it? "Yeah, why not?" he said finally, pulling on a smile he hoped was casual and inviting. Felline seemed to relax - oh, how daring and darling she was. "Do you want me to bring my shirt?"

"A towel and something to wear in the water would be nice." she shot back immediately.

That was better. More familiar, more of the Felline he knew and was accustomed to. He could work with that. He could work with anything if he put his mind to it, but he knew what to do with that.

"Happy to oblige," he said, pushing away from the balcony and stepping into the room. The breeze had been gentle, but refreshing; it'd kept the summer heat from mugging around him, better than the interior of the palace did. He pulled his shirt on without further delay, quietly amused by the way Felline pointedly stared at the wall. And, also, relieved. White fur was awful for hiding the red tint that came with a flush, and his neck and upper torso were not fortunate enough to have blue markings to disrupt it.

Felline cleared her throat awkwardly. "I'm going to just..."

"Get a towel?"

"Yeah..." she agreed.

Bengali grinned lopsidedly, "Maybe towels for two? And I could sneak through the kitchens..." Felline gave him a flat look, and he splayed his paws in the air. "What? Who doesn't like late night snacks?"

Felline rolled her eyes fondly. "Whatever. Where do you want to go? The pools should be clean..."

"The pools sound good."

"See you there." She left the lounge quickly with barely a wave at him behind her back.

He leaned back against the chair and wondered what just happened and if he'd imagined it. Then, he shook his head and left through the far side entryway in the direction of the kitchens.

* * *

It was dark when he got to the pools, the calm ones on the outskirts of the rest formed at the base of the waterfall that backed Thundera, the primary source of water for the whole kingdom. The calm pools didn't really go anywhere, just trickled into other pools of slow moving water.

They weren't too far from the palace and more frequently than not clean, though it took maintenance, making them an ideal place to swim.

If you lived in the palace, that was.

Oddly enough, slum-brat Bengali had a room there whenever he wanted, a niche reserved just for him by the King himself. If he could go back in time and tell his younger self that one day, he'd consider the King of Thundera one of his dearest friends and was regarded as such in return, he knew his younger self would laugh in his face and call him a liar. That wasn't how classist, racist Thundera that loved only cats, but only if you didn't live in the slums, worked at all. He'd have rather ran away from the "city of cats" and gone back to his and Jorma's shop in Dog City, cat or not.

Felline beat him there, but it didn't seem like he'd kept her waiting long. She was hanging the towels she brought on a tree branch, anxiously smoothing them over; anxiously, he could tell, because her tail wriggled and squirmed in the way he'd learned was anxious. Her ears swiveled towards him.

"I didn't keep you waiting, did I?" he asked anyway.

She shook her head and continued nitpicking over the towels. "No. I just got here a few minutes ago."

Bengali stared at her for a minute, debating what to say. She was nervous, obviously. Defusing situations with humor was his thing, really, but maybe it'd be better if he took a comforting approach? The only people he was good at being comforting with were literal children. Cubs, pups, joeys, kits, calves...kids were just disarming, okay? They brought out a scarily genuine part of Bengali that he'd prefer no one knew about, in all honesty.

Except, he didn't think it'd bother him if Felline knew. She was good with things like that, understanding depths and layers of people, and keeping trust too.

Weird.

"You're nervous." he said calmly, setting the food down. She startled, whipping her head around to look at him with shocked eyes. "You're stiff and your tail...your tail is the most obvious indicator of your body language."

Felline opened her mouth, then closed it with a click. Her ears folded back against her head. Bengali wondered if it was too late to backtrack as she withdrew her paws from the towels.

"I...um...I am that obvious, aren't I?" she said.

Bengali gave a single chuckle and gestured with a paw, "Just a little, Felline. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but. You know. We've been swimming before. No need to be anxious."

"..you're right. It's silly anyway." And she relaxed, rolling her shoulders. "Alright, turn around or forever be called a pervert," she said, resting a paw on her hip and giving him an impressively teasing look, ears perked up and lips lopsided.

Bengali held up his paws again, and turned around with a drawled, "Never that. It'd forever ruin my reputation, Felline."

She giggled quietly. Giggled. It was so weird. This night was so weird.

He shoved the thought away and pulled his shirt off again, slowly. As he predicted, Felline said something about it:

"What are- never mind. I'll...I'm turning around."

"You mean you aren't going to watch to make sure I don't suddenly peek?" he teased. "I could put on a show~" he sing-songed.

"I hate you. And I wasn't watching to make sure you didn't peek!" Felline protested.

Bengali knelt down to unclasp the garter that kept his footwear-slash-stockings up, and rolled them down carefully before stepping out. He examined his prosthetics for a moment , running his thumb down the false shinbone. As ever, Mumm-Rana's creations were flawless and blended in naturally, almost as if they were the originals, if one ignored the obvious signs that they were technological and furless. His lower legs would be fine in the water, they always were and likely always would be.

"Sometimes I forget." he heard Felline say quietly. He half turned his head to peer at her over his shoulder. "About your legs. You're so...secretive about them."

This is where, if it were anyone else, he'd crack a joke and smile to hide the pain and layers. Defuse the situation and shift it away from this sudden and strange, but not entirely unlikeable, intensity. It wasn't too different from when they got so engrossed in tinkering that it seemed like their minds aligned - incredibly similar in feeling if he thought about it.

Instead, because this was Felline and not someone else, he stroked one of the prostheses again. "I guess I don't like to think about..it." he told her vaguely. He didn't want to elaborate on the specifics of the event if he didn't have to. "I didn't lose them in an instant, like Panthro. It wasn't bloodless, or clean, or painless. They were...mangled, Felline." He hadn't meant to add the last part, but suddenly he could smell blood as if it were real, and the phantom pains never really went away, so the aching that came with the coppery scent was only normal.

"I'm..sorry." her voice was unusually quiet, "I didn't mean to...-"

"It's fine. You didn't." he told her, twisting around to give her a smile. "If I didn't want to tell you, I wouldn't have said anything."

Felline smiled a little, her right ear and tail tip flicking. She'd already finished stripping down to her swimwear, with only her gloves left to remove.

He turned back around and stood up. He was sliding his leggings down when he heard, "Like...how sometimes you talk about the disconnect you feel with other cats?" His brows furrowed, and he looked at her again. Her back was to him, but he had the feeling the pause was her collecting her thoughts and trying to make them coherent. "You don't - didn't - have to talk about it, you even told Tygra to shove off when he first tried to pry, but you did anyway...about not knowing why you'd been abandoned in the forest to die, or how Thunderians seemed so awfully ignorant and, well...a lot of things we were and are still learning to grow from."

"Yeah?" Bengali agreed.

He'd probably have liked Tygra more if everything about him hadn't grated on every nerve he had; he didn't get on them much anymore, but he'd be damned to admit he actually liked the shithead and appreciated his scathing commentary, or that he was - secretly - proud of how he'd grown in the way Bengali imagined an older brother would be. Not that he knew what being an older sibling was like, or had any conclusive evidence to suggest they were related.

Honestly, it was just safer to assume that possibility of him being related to Tygra and Shera was very real, even if Shera was from a completely different clan from a completely different place; twenty-nine years later, and he still had no frickin' clue about his parentage aside from "tigers" and neither did Jorma. It wasn't like he could storm up the mountains and demand to know who'd had a white tiger cub almost three decades ago, they'd all died two and a half ago and moved on already. He was well and thoroughly out of luck when it came to that, but that was fine, really. He'd only want to know so he could tell his biological parents to go die somewhere. Perhaps demand to know why he was left in a forest full of starving predators during the late fall, but other than that...no. Maybe it was better he didn't know, he'd decided years ago. There'd have never been any happy ending in store for a "family" reunion in store for him.

Oh, look at that, he got sidetracked and thoroughly derailed again.

"All I mean is...why?"

Bengali blinked at her. "What do you mean 'why?'"

"Why tell us when you didn't have to? You didn't even like us that much...you didn't even want to go with us, but Jorma asked you to, so you did." Felline sounded almost upset, looking at him now.

Everything in his brain screamed to backpedal, cover up with humor, but he wanted to be honest and sincere to a question like that if he could. "Uh. That's a loaded question." Currently, he was failing. He did neither, deflecting, "Do you mean all of you, or just...you?" From the way her body froze and she struggled to find something to say, abruptly moving more than she had before, he would deduce that it was the latter; of course, she wasn't that selfless. No one was. He snorted, and set to folding his clothes. "Okay, then, why I told you? Because you're discreet and it was hard not to trust you, what with how quietly persistent you could be and your curiosity. We ended up spending a lot of time working on odd projects - like the spyder-bot and Shera's techno-orb, you know," he said, rolling his wrist in gesture. She nodded, "And I guess we just clicked. I liked you and Panthro before anyone else - okay, actually...I knew Pumyra way before I knew you two, and then Lynx-O, so...but you get my point that I probably just undermined." Ever the gesticulative, he waved his paws.

Felline's expression darkened a little at the mention of Pumyra. She might have redeemed herself, but she wasn't entirely forgiven for so utterly betraying them. Which, Bengali could understand, but he hadn't been there, and neither had Lynx-O, so that made it a bit easier.

"Anyway," he went on, "I didn't ever open up to Pumyra like this and Lynx-O has this sagely and patient vibe that Cheetara's been leaching from him lately, so, yeah."

Almost instantly, Felline looked sheepish. Was she jealous? Or...had she been? Since when?

His brain scrambled again to figure the mystery out, but flailed rather hopelessly in its attempt.

"Oh." she said, smiling faintly. "Um. I'll stop bugging you about..." she trailed, gesturing vaguely. "...that...type of stuff."

He laughed, "If that's what you want!" Actually, he was relieved, and he was sure she could tell by the way his shoulders relaxed and he became less stiff as a whole. It'd been a peculiar line of questioning, the whole evening had turned very oddly, but he wasn't about to start prodding at it.

"What I want?" Felline said in that other weirdly flirtatious voice. Bengali set his folded clothes down as she approached, and stood again. She stopped in front if him, an innocent, but mischievous look in her eyes. He arched a brow when she pressed her paws against his chest, taking a brief moment to squeeze, and he glanced down. Which was a mistake. "...is for you to get in the water already!" He looked up in time to see the evil smirk, but then he was falling backwards into the water, submerging, from the shove she gave him.

It was shockingly cold for a moment, but then he adjusted quickly. The temperature was nice.

When he resurfaced, coughing only twice, she was laughing. Well, if that was how she was gonna play, then he was obligated to return the favor.

Bengali lunged from the pool, wrapping his arms around her waist. She squeaked in alarm and shouted a protest, but he ignored it. It was too late for her to backpedal from this. He pulled her into the water, falling backwards with her while she struggled, and they went under with a splash. She was quick to slip and swim away from him, and return to the surface for air. He followed more slowly, trying not to laugh. Much.

When he came back up, she was floating at the edge of the pool, arms folded on the ground and ripples licking at her back. He joined her, both for her follow-up reaction and to make sure none of their clothes or towels got wet from the splash.

They didn't, thankfully. That was good.

"I hate you." Felline said for the third time that day, a third with no actual heat to it.

He chuckled and grinned. "You keep saying that, but I don't think you mean it." Bengali was expecting the small splash she sent his way, half-hearted and not really annoyed, and sloshed water onto his face.

Bengali was not expecting the gentle touch, a quick and timid press of lips to his own. He tensed, mind racing to keep up- and just as he fully comprehended that Felline was kissing him, she was pulling away, face red. Bengali stared dumbly for a moment, struggling to react, or say something, or- there were lips on his again, and he was pretty sure he'd chased after he and not that she'd came back in, if the surprised noise she made was any indication.

And then he pulled back, resting a paw on her clavicle to ensure some distance.

He let his eyes stay closed for a minute, before taking a deep breath and opening them. Felline was staring down, at his paw, with an indiscernible expression. Or maybe Bengali just wasn't able to read it because he was trying to get a wrap on how he felt about this.

It made sense, really. He could think of dozens of instances building up to this, and he should have noticed sooner instead of being an oblivious idiot whose brain was trying to figure out what it'd missed instead of drawing the obvious conclusion- Felline was flirting with him, much less subtly tonight than she had been for...maybe the past year? Moves. She was putting moves on him. He thought, for a moment, he should have been more bothered by that than he was, but he stared at her clavicle and focused on how it felt under his paw, gently moved his thumb in a circle. He liked it. He wasn't sure why he thought he shouldn't, so he hunted down the thought and dissected it, picked it apart the way he used to pick apart his father's spare gadgets and gizmos to learn and understand how they worked and why.

It used to be, as he'd been derailed earlier, he didn't remotely see Felline in anyway but platonic because she was still young. Their age gap hadn't changed, but there was a maturity difference between an eighteen year old and a twenty year old - or, there should have been - that meant something to Bengali. Well, that reason was gone and out the window, but he'd never really thought hard about how he saw Felline. She was pretty, smart, observant, and about as stubborn as him. She learned quick and was great company, he genuinely liked being around her.

Thinking on it, his teasing wasn't exactly innocent in nature - not malicious, but...well, he wouldn't have teased Shera the same way.

The more he worked the thought, the more it crumbled away to just being oblivious to the fact that, yes, he was attracted to Felline but hadn't ever thought on it or recognized it. Not surprising, since his past attraction to Pumyra had been completely different.

But he wasn't there, with Felline, to think about Pumyra or could-have-beens.

Bengali hummed a little, watching curiously as Felline raised a paw and folded it over his, just below her neck. "Sorry," Bengali said, twitching his lips. "I needed to think."

"No, you're fine." she said, blushing. Her ears folded down, but it looked more bashful than anything.

He raised his paw from her clavicle, her paw lowering back into the water, to push back a wild strand of her curls. "And...I think I've been an idiot." he told her honestly. "An oblivious one, too." He'd established with himself that he liked Felline, and looking back had liked her for a while now, and maybe it'd just been so natural to transition into deeper feelings that he hadn't noticed or questioned it, but he was hesitant and reluctant to label it as anything too strong.

"Well, if you'd realized it would have defeated the point of being - what was it you said? Discrete." she smiled a little. After a moment, she added a bit wistfully, "I was kind of expecting you to get together with...someone else." There was a hint of bitterness in her voice; there was probably a story to that, and Lion-O was probably part of it. He knew she'd liked him, and Lion-O could be, well...Lion-O.

"Why assume I'd get together with anyone?" he asked curiously, twirling a strand of her mane around his claw.

She stared at him for a minute, and then apparently decided to be coy about it. "Why not?"

Insecurities, Bengali deduced. It hadn't occurred to her he might actually like her the same way it hadn't been obvious that he did. "So...I want to make sure I understand this. You finally, a couple years after the fact, realized I wasn't going to," he pulled his paw away from her mane to gesture, "'get together' with anyone, and decided to put the moves on me, so to speak. That is..." he couldn't help but chuckle a little as he said, "kind of precious, Felline."

She gave him the look, and crossed her arms. Her ears stay folded back, but it was definitely with annoyance. "Why did I think this was a good idea...?" she wondered aloud dryly.

Instead of answering immediately, Bengali gave her a grin; no way was he ever telling her that no one had ever done this sort of thing to - with - him. Or, not that he'd noticed. It was sweet, either way, and a nicer way for the realization to come to him, rather than by unraveling its kids' gloves and hitting him full-force randomly.

What a weird evening it was, but other odd instances were falling into place, so he wasn't going to complain.

"Because it brought idiot me to my senses?" he offered eventually. He was still trying to decide if this whole set up was unusually roundabout for Felline who was typically to the point about things, or if it was actually and really quite straight-forward for someone so romantically quiet and, uh, well. Prone to bottling up her romantic feelings? In fear of rejection, maybe?

Bengali needed to stop trying so hard to figure it all out. Animals weren't like a machine, which worked within a set boundary of programming and functions. Animals and emotions could be predicted, but there weren't any rules that were always abided. There was no taking them apart and putting them back together, and figuring out everything about them and the way they worked - they changed far too often for that, reacted to so many things happening simultaneously and were adaptable, even when they wanted to stay the same against a river's tide. With animals, there were always surprises, they'd do things he wasn't expecting for reasons beyond him.

"It only took hitting you with an anvil." Felline said bluntly, pushing a paw against his chest.

"I'm pretty sure you hit me with your lips, not an anvil." he informed her seriously. "An anvil would have knocked me out, at least."

She started to scoff and say something else, but he ran his paw through the water, cupped and pretty, and doused her with a well aimed splash. Felline squawked in surprise, then narrowed her eyes at him.

"Oh, it's on, Bengali." she growled.

Mission successful, Bengali grabbed her paw, pulling away from his chest to retaliate, and kissed her again smugly. She made a half-way endeared noise and he sounded triumphant as he pulled back, "Fair's fair."

He was splashed in the face again by a feisty looking snow leopard who stuck her tongue out at him for affect, and then, yes, the war really was on.

(Felline won. But she also cheated. Bengali didn't really mind.)

* * *

A/N: All of this, because I wanted Felline to SHOVE BENGALI INTO WATER AND THEN KISS HIM. Like, that was 94% of my motivation for this and I'm not sorry about that.

Also, I wanted to explore a possible future Felline in her early twenties, getting tired of bottling up her feelings and sticking her neck out farther than she meant to but being stubborn and sticking with it. And do you ever fall into a deeper friendship, and then forget to wonder if you've developed a crush and what not until it sneaks up on you like "yes, hello, you are really deep in you're liking of this person, that is all." 'cause apparently mine and Bengali's ADHD asses do.

ADHD Bengali is a thing. He pretty much has my ADHD down on pat.


End file.
